The Litter of the Law: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery, by Rita Mae Brown (and Sneaky Pie Brown)
Published by Bantam, October 22, 2013
Before my first blog, Cozy Little Book Journal, was even a book blog, it was an actual journal that I kept beside my bed and used to record my thoughts on books I had read. One of the reasons I did that was for books like this. I read a lot of cozy mysteries and sometimes when I discover a series I like, I want to make sure I can find that author again. Other times I want to warn myself that this series is not for me. The reason I need to take notes is because, with cozy mysteries, they can all start to look the same after a while.
Take, for example, the cat cozy. There are a million of them. I remember reading something by Marian Babson on my lunch break once and my boss said, "Oh is she the woman who writes all those cat mysteries?" and I said, "No, you're thinking of that other one." In other words, there are a LOT of "that woman who writes the cat mysteries." It's hard to remember which ones I like and which ones I don't.
In the case of Rita Mae Brown, I should have remembered to pass. It's not that she's a bad writer, it's just that this isn't my kind of cozy. While I don't mind a main character who is a cat lover, I'm not fond of the "character other than humans who speaks" angle. There are rare exceptions, but generally if it has talking cats, talking ghosts, talking imaginary friends, talking dogs or talking magical clocks and they help solve the murders, I'd rather not read it. In the case of The Litter of the Law, there are so many talking animal characters that they have their own dramatis personae. It's too much for me, though I obviously can't speak for anyone else.
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